It happened about 70 years ago during World War II. It killed 63 percent of the Jewish population in Europe, totaling 5,962,129 deaths. It was called the Holocaust, and it is thought of today as one the most horrific events in history.

The problem with the Holocaust was that much of the world outside of Germany didn’t know it was happening. But afterwards, the entire world vowed “never again.”

But then Rwanda happened. In 100 days, one million Tutsis were killed by the Hutus. The United Nations, and the rest of the world, were reluctant to go in. What we had once vowed would never happen again, happened again. World officials made excuses, claiming they were unaware of the extent of the conflict, that it wasn’t clear the conflict had turned into genocide. Once again, they said, “never again.”

But here we are, in the year 2009, with yet another genocide, and this time, they can’t make excuses.

In March of 2003, rebel groups in Darfur, the western region of Sudan, began attacking government forces. These two rebel groups, the Sudan Liberation Army and the Justice and Equality Movement were made up of Black Africans, and they felt that all Black Africans in Sudan were being oppressed by the government in favor of the Muslim African majority.

It took only a year for the United States government to label the conflict as a genocide. And since the beginning of the conflict, there have been hundreds of humanitarian and activist groups dedicated to stopping the genocide, mainly those of STAND: A Student Anti-Genocide Coalition, the Genocide Intervention Network, The Save Darfur Coalition, and the Enough Project.

So how come, six years later, the genocide is still going on? That’s a good question.

International help has been slow to respond. While the public outcry has been heard worldwide, governmental response has been limited, especially by the United States.

Darfur has received very limited aid from the United States government. Most of the aid has been from non-governmental organizations, such as the ones listed above.

The United States does not want to act alone. Officials fear that sending in American troops alone may bring back haunting memories of Vietnam, and of course, remind us of our current situation in the Middle East. Therefore, it has relied on the support of the United Nations for relief efforts.

There’s a huge problem with this though. That is, the United Nations still hasn’t recognized Darfur as a genocide. The U.N. claims that the conflict is a brutal civil war, not a genocide. That may have been how it started, but in the past six years, the Janjaweed, the militia group hired by the Sudanese government to fight the rebels, have killed over 300,000, many of which were innocent civilians, and have displaced around 3 million. The U.N. doesn’t consider this genocide. And to further that, a U.N. representative recently went so far as to say that the war is over. Tell that to the 3 million people living in refugee camps in Chad.

So it’s up to us to act. President Obama has vowed to begin more relief and peacekeeping efforts, but in his nine months as president, has yet to act on those promises. Perhaps the future of Darfur rests not in the hands of the government, but in the people. Maybe it’s groups like the Genocide Intervention Network, STAND: A Student Anti-Genocide Coalition, and the Save Darfur Coalition that will be the final deciders in the conflict. Perhaps those who care should join a local chapter of STAND rather than wait for the government’s empty promises to be fulfilled.

If you went around and asked people, “If you could go back in time and stop the Holocaust from ever happening, would you?” I bet almost everyone would say yes. Here’s our chance to go back in time.